We are already starting to plan for next year and there are too many possibilities so I’m looking for suggestions.
Can anyone suggest interesting places for a 50 yr. old couple who like beach, half decent food and a chance to walk around in town or tour a bit?

We’ve been to:
Greece - GO do the islands it is amazing
Cuba - Cayo Coco, the Colonial was fine but far from anything
Mexico 3 times: twice to Playa del Carmen and once to Bucerias the Decameron (Puerto Vallarta).
Loved Bucerias liked Playa.
Puerto Plata: - just ok but was dirt cheap
Jamaica - love Negril but stayed in Lucea
on recent cruise saw:
San Juan - just a big city with a tourist district
St. Kitts - liked island
Saint Marten - loved what we saw on the Dutch side
Cruising is not for us though.

While we’d like to go back to Bucerias there are so many places to see and so little vacation time in the bank.

My #1 suggestion would be Hawaii, either Maui or Lanai for first time visitors. We rent a condo to be self sufficient and save $$ on eating out. Westjet vacations has some good packages which include the airfare & accommodation. In Maui we like staying in the Kihei area and for Lanai near Poipu if you are going in the winter months. A rental car is pretty much a must have for exploring the island. So much to see and do! Snorkeling is awesome which is the draw for us.

For Mexico I recommend Los Cabos on the Baja Peninsula. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort (Posada Real) in San Jose del Cabo and loved the location for walking into town and long walks on the beach. Drawback to Los Cabos are the strong ocean currents. Snorkeling is a big part of our holiday enjoyment so we really missed not indulging in this activity. The Melia Cabo is on a swimmable beach and was supposed to be our second trip to the area. Hurricane Odile this past October cancelled that vacation.

Thanks will look into Cabo. Good to hear there are some swimmable beaches. Hawaii may be a bit far from Ontario but my sister swears by it. Only issue is it is in the US and our dollar sucks right now.

Yes, that can be an issue for some. We’ve gotten around the fluctuation of the CDN/US dollar by having a US dollar bank account at BMO and a US dollar based Mastercard. Set this up years ago! When the dollar is favourable, we buy US dollars to squirrel away into our US bank account and we don’t pay any conversion fee/charges on the credit card because it gets paid out of the US dollar bank account.

For Hawaii vacations, I book a Westjet airfare/accommodation package - payable in CDN funds so the only US dollar expenses we have in Hawaii are the rental car (under $300 last trip for 14 days on a Ford Focus), groceries, gas (from Costco where it’s $1 per gallon cheaper) & sundry items. Our recent 2 week trip to Maui cost about $100 more than the usual 2, one week all-inclusive vacations we used to take to Cuba. Enjoyment and quality of the Hawaii vacations exceed all-inclusive by a country mile for our taste/style. Listen to your sister! :) Lol!!

And yes, also check out Huatulco Mexico! We enjoyed the Las Brisas Huatulco and would go back. We weren’t especially impressed with Manzanillo or Mazatlan Mexico but our neighbours swear by Mazatlan.

We aren’t discounting Saint Marten. We were only there for about 6 hours but were intrigued by what we saw. Seems like with two cultures on one island there’s much to explore. Plus someone likes to jewellery shop.
We did go to a travel show this weekend and now we have about 10 lbs. of books to go through so many destinations so little time…

I just visited Jamaica and Haiti, heading to Cozumel and Cayman Islands in Feb, then in April going to Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Dominica, and Barbados!!

I know Northernguycanada that cruising is not for you.

But I love the fact I get to see and experience so many different places. While it may be only for a day at a time, it’s still an amazing experience and learn so much. Not to mention get some ideas as to where I would like to go back and spend more time.

I love Cuba for a week of doing nothing and relaxing…but I want to see much more.

Next year I am hoping to visit Europe through cruising. Get to see at least another 4-5 countries that I never imagined I would!

We did a ‘sort of’ cruise in Greece. 3 - 5 days at various islands plus Athens using the ferry system. Great way to experience different places but with enough time to explore each stop. Would recommend to anyone trying to see parts of Europe. Enjoy your cruise Monctonguy.

I grew up in Europe, and moved to Canada when I was 27, so I’m happy to explore more on this side of the Atlantic! ;). Although I wouldn’t mind seeing more places in Europe, it’s been 20 years since I was in Greece.